


Worth It.

by caitlesshea



Series: Canon-Lite. [3]
Category: Animal Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Big brother Craig to the rescue, Deran has to get it together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-15
Updated: 2018-11-15
Packaged: 2019-08-21 15:59:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16579670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitlesshea/pseuds/caitlesshea
Summary: Craig tells Deran to get it together.





	Worth It.

**Author's Note:**

> This is also posted on my Tumblr. Part 3 of my post 1x07 story.

Deran was tired. He barely got any sleep. From everything that happened with Adrian, to meeting the bar owner, he was wrecked. Although it wasn’t all bad. He was doing this. He had agreed to come up with the cash she was asking for. Now he just had to get it. And figure out how to run a business. Details.

 

He was sitting on his couch with his head leaning against the wall, smoking a joint, when Craig busts through the front door.

 

“Dude, what the hell? You could knock”, Deran said.

 

Craig just plucked the joint right out of his fingers, took a hit, and sat down in a chair.

 

“Mmm”, Craig said when Deran took the joint back.

 

“What’s up?”, Deran asks. He hated this silent treatment.

 

“Saw Adrian”, Craig said.

 

“Okay?”, Deran asks. He doesn’t know where this is going. He doesn’t _ want to _ know where this is going.

 

“Yeah. Went by the Shop to have my board fixed. He apparently slept in his car last night”, Craig said, as he gave Deran a pointed stare.

 

Deran’s heart sunk, “Jesus”, he said as he tugged on his hair.

 

“What happened?”, Craig asks.

 

“Nothing man”, Deran says back.

 

“You two get into or something?”, Craig’s being pushy, he thinks.

 

“Or something”, he mumbles.

 

“What’d you do?”, Craig asks him. He gives Craig a look.

 

“Nothing man”, Deran says back defensively. He doesn’t want to get into it with Craig. He doesn’t know if he could even say the words out loud. Even thinking about all the horrible things he did to Adrian made his head spin, but saying them out loud. He’s not sure he can.

 

“Bullshit”, Craig says, “he looked like hell. You didn’t hurt him, did you?”

 

“What?”, he yells, and then quieter, “No”.

 

“What does that mean?”, Craig asks again.

 

“Nothing man, we’re just taking some time apart”, Deran says. He’s running his fingers through his hair, yanking on it hard enough to hurt. Good.

 

“Rigghhttt. Dude, I don’t by it. You’re always together. How do you think I figured it out? You had to fuck up somehow. No offense”, Craig says.

 

He’s still pulling on his hair. He feels a sob threatening to choke him. He doesn’t know where to begin. He doesn’t want to. Saying it all out loud. Actually admitting to the things he did. The things that hurt Adrian. He doesn’t know if he can do it. But, he thinks, he can’t become that person who deserves Adrian if he can’t even admit what he did.

 

He sighs. “Yeah man, I fucked up”, he finally says.

 

“Tell me”, Craig says. So he does. He starts with the bathroom, and how his absolute terror at being caught by J overwhelmed him so much that he just reacted. How Adrian let him keep hitting him. How when he went to see Adrian to get the rent and Adrian admitted that he had broken his ribs, and he saw the black eye, that he went and cried in his car, for hours. How, when he saw that Adrian was starting to see someone else, and to have it confirmed that it had been going on for a couple of months, he had Pope throw Dave off a boat in the middle of the ocean. How he broke into his place in the middle of the night with a crow bar. How much he had scared him. When he’s finished, he just looks at the ground. He can’t stop the tears that are falling. He’s so ashamed. Ashamed at his actions, at how he treated Adrian, his best friend, who he loves.

 

He finally looks up at Craig, who has his mouth hanging open and a look of shock on his face.

 

“Dude”, Craig says, like he can’t believe Deran did all of that. “You fucked up”, he continues.

 

“Thank you. I know that”, Deran says back, angry.

 

“You gotta fix it”, Craig says to him. He knows he does, but he knows that he needs to respect Adrian’s wishes. And if Adrian never speaks to him again, never forgives him, while it would break him, he knows that he won’t go against Adrian’s decision.

 

“Yeah man, working on it”, he says back. Not quite ready to let him in on the bar yet. It still feels too raw. Too good to be true.

 

“Good”, Craig says just as his phone goes off. He checks it, “Damn it’s Smurf, we gotta go”.

 

As he gets up to leave, he can’t help but think about everything again. He’s got a long road ahead of him. Not just with the bar, but with everything that happened with Adrian. It’s going to take everything he’s got to atone for his sins. But he smiles to himself, because Adrian’s worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
